Panoramic (arc-panoramic.it)

 Completed in March 1997.

By the time 1997 began, it was time to move on. I was ready to leave the local BBS scene behind and find a wider audience. Typically, mod musicians would join up into groups so they could better promote their music, collaborate, and generally support each other. Some groups focused mostly on demos, some focused only on music, and some groups did both. The most legendary demoscene group was Future Crew. Other notable groups included Kosmic and Five Musicians.

Naturally, I had no chance of joining groups like that.

Around the same time, a new browser plugin called ModPlug emerged as a means of playing mod music within a browser. It was followed by Modplug Player, and eventually, Modplug Tracker (now known as OpenMPT). The software was found on a website called ModPlug Central. ModPlug Central was loosely associated with another website called Kim’s Mod Page, maintained by a single guy who catalogued and promoted mod music - often whatever new uploads he could find on various mod music archives, including the Hornet Archive and Mod Archive (but not limited to those).

Kim, of Kim’s mod page, was associated with a group called Shattered Fixtures. I looked them up and I was intrigued. Unlike other groups, they didn’t seem out of my league. I would have to step up a bit, but I felt like I was a good fit. So, I took a chance and applied to join. The name Shattered Fixtures apparently came from an episode of Aeon Flux, where somebody offhandedly mentions their cassette for a band called Shattered Fixtures.

I don’t remember exactly how I auditioned but given that I had a wad of my Quasar songs uploaded to the Hornet Archive on March 17th and 18th, I’m pretty sure that was so they could check out my music. Of those songs, I made three good choices (Flight Through the Clouds, Time and Eternity, Unparalleled World) and three very questionable ones (The Fantasticks Act 1, Pretzelstock, and Jade ~ 2:30 ~).

In spite of that, they accepted me. Thus, I had a new group, and a new platform for sharing my music.

I wanted to make a good first impression, so I worked hard on a new track to release for the group, and this song is the result. It paid off: the song, which I named Panoramic, replaced Time and Eternity as my best song to date. When the Shattered Fixtures website was updated to include this song, it said of me, “He definitely has groove!” which I was feeling pretty good about.

It’s not entirely original, unfortunately. It’s clearly inspired by the song Snowdrift by Sirrus, using many of its samples and imitating its style. There was possibly some inspiration from Jeroen Tel (aka Wave, aka Maniacs of Noise) but this wasn’t from any particular song, just a general style inspiration. Like many of my songs, I switched up the theme halfway through, the second half being something a bit more original. My favorite part of the song is the first bridge section just over a minute in, due to the fast-moving blip sequence. I was particularly proud of that at the time, since I thought it sounded good and although it was inspired by sequences I heard in various other songs, it came out sounding original.

The song’s biggest flaw is the trap that I would often fall into at this stage: lots of repetition. I would just play a theme repeatedly on one sample, and then add a new repeated theme on another sample in the next pattern. This happens often in the second half of the song, but can be heard throughout. I’m pretty sure by the end of 1997 I had (mostly) disabused myself of this bad habit. Still, it was overall a good debut song for my new group.

I don’t exactly remember why I named this song “Panoramic.” But I have a theory. I used a fair amount of stereo panning from side to side in this, particularly with the beat loops in the first half, creating a “panorama” of sound. I think that may have caused me to choose that title unconsciously.
- arcturus